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There are occasions when a studio forms and you just know that we’re going to be writing more about them in the near future. This is one such happening: veterans of 2K Czech and Bohemia have come together to form Warhorse Studios. Games under the collective belt of this team include Mafia, Mafia II, Arma, Arma II, UFO: Aftermath, and Hidden & Dangerous. The team is apparently working on an RPG project which they describe as follows: “There is a common thread running through our previous games: open worlds, strong storyline and, last but not least, realistic design. We can proudly say that the games Mafia and Operation Flashpoint were the vanguard of this approach and millions of players worldwide clearly share our view. Even if our new project is different in many respects, it is a game that is not going to disappoint fans of open realistic worlds and quality stories. We are positive we are not making this game for ourselves only but for you as well.” And given the name, and art, I think we can expect a medieval setting.

Needless to say, we’ve got in touch to find out more. Watch this space.

If it’s a Medieval setting, there should be horses. And if it’s like Mafia 2, there’ll be a forced sequence where you have to chase someone on horseback, who will be on a faster horse than yours, and you’ll be constantly frustrated by other people on horses crashing into you at intersections in the village, so you have to red-do the mission 10 times to beat it before the clock runs out.

On the other hand, maybe I won’t suck at driving horses like I suck at driving cars in games.

@ IDtenT: Well, all you can do in a videogame is drive the damn things around like a car. It’s nothing like riding a horse, even a fairly good horse combat game like Mount & Blade.

A PC-based horseback riding simulator would need to include nails in your chair to simulate saddle sores, something that reaches around under your computer desk and bites your legs, every so often, and that takes away your mouse control when it decides to go wander off and chew on some interesting plant life while ignoring your commands. And don’t get me started on burros… now THERE is a nasty animal….

@ Chris D
Yeah, but it’s Jim that’s mentioned the medieval setting, not Warhorse. Granted, both the name and art seem to suggest as much (and I would certainly not mind a M&B-type game either). It may not be, though, is all I’m saying…

Fair enough, I hadn’t picked up that Jim was the one who’d mentioned the setting, although the artwork still seems to be a strong hint. I think my original post might not have highlighted the word guess quite strongly enough. :)

Dark Messiah-esque combat, Elder Scroll’s style free roaming province (preferably more like Morrowind or even Daggerfall than Oblivion) and a dynamic changing story line in the vein of Mount & Blade.
Ah, we can only dream.

Mafia II’s story was linear, yes, but the world it was set in was a wonderfullly realised 40s era American city. I think they did a fantastic job getting the atmosphere right with the art direction, radio stations etc. So open world semi-realistic RPG with a fantastic atmosphere? Yes please.

It’s true that they’re linear but i’d say calling the open world backdrop padding does them a bit of a disservice. They were not supposed to be sandbox games and the worlds they were set in were brilliantly designed and dripping with atmosphere. While i had a few complaints about M2 (one of which was that it could have benefited from some sandboxy padding) the setting was not one. The city is by far the best open world i’ve had the pleasure of exploring.

Czechs are under the Slav umbrella. Their culture is closely related to the rest of the Slavs and they suffer from some of the ills the other slavic nations have. So all in all its really more appropriate to categorize them as Eastern Europe which might as well be a synonym for slavic.

You call me an idiot when you make broad generalizations. There are tons of degenerate germans and czechs that break your idealistic view of Germans as some sort of master race. Now why don’t you take your Hitler loving self out of here and go hang out with those “slavs” you hate so much that love to be neo nazis in your Eastern European nations? British man signing off.

Good news is, its the talent that got “left” from 2K when the terrible management took over and caused MAFIA 2 to be ‘developed’ for 8 fruitless years. Martin Klima is a very smart man and Vavra has a good reputation for his disapproval of mediocre storytelling.

Also, the picture on their page is a painting of “JAN ZIZKA” so google something maybe there’s a hint.